By The Numbers: Allmans at the Beacon

The Allman Brothers Band concluded another epic run at the Beacon Theater last night. And just when you thought they had run out of possible guests, they bring out a former baseball player and a certified blues legend.

I thought the run started slow, but things quickly heated up. The Brothers broke out a number of new covers this run, including but not limited to All Along The Watchtower, Mojo Boogie, Dazed and Confused, Manic Depression. So many songs were played this run that some classics such as Ain’t Wastin’ Time, Soulshine, and Melissa were only played four times (whereas each of those songs were played almost every night during the Dickie Betts’ days). The return of Warren to the fold in 2001 really pushed this band to new heights, both in execution of playing and in making the setlists interesting again.

I attended Friday night’s concert and last night’s finale. Both shows were amazing in completely different ways. The band played a number of covers at my first show of the weekend, as they were celebrating Warren Haynes’ 47th birthday. Hearing Warren sing I’ve Been Lovin’ You Too Long was a thrill: the man owned that song. Peter Frampton showed he has some killer chops when he sat in for three songs, including a blistering Born Under A Bad Sign.

Sunday’s show was more about the Allmans’ original tunes. The band played a version of Jessica that included a ridiculous solo from Derek Trucks. Trucks and Haynes bring so much emotion to the table that you expect the table to start crying. My favorite part of the three shows I caught was Sunday’s triple encore. Oteil came out at first and played a short but sweet solo version of the beautiful Little Martha. The band returned with American Idol Taylor Hicks on harmonica for a rockin’ One Way Out, followed by a fitting Revival.

Now that the run is over, we’ve gone geek and entered the stats into an excel file. These are the results that we came up with:

227 songs played
86 different songs played
45 guests
29 songs played only one time
15 total shows
9 shows before they played a concert without any songs that were new to the run [3/31/07]
9 versions of Statesboro Blues [only song played more than six times]
3 versions of Whipping Post [comparison: they played 10 in 13 shows in 1996]
2 shows with no guests (3/20, 3/22)
1 guest appearance by a New York Yankee
0 LOVE for Dickey Betts